TOP SECRET

In 2019, we began a quiet project with AJ Fernández.

One goal. One cigar. Something worthy of our father’s 88th birthday.

Heberto Padilla was born in Pinar del Río, Cuba, on his family’s tobacco estate. For generations, the Padillas grew the leaf that filled Cuba’s most celebrated brands. That soil is in our blood. We weren’t going to honor it with an ordinary cigar.

Then AJ told me a secret.

He was experimenting with Pelo de Oro — “the golden strand.” For decades, it was Cuba’s foremost filler seed. The flavor was legendary. The plant was not. Fragile. Prone to mold and insects. Miserable yields. Growers abandoned it, and the seed nearly went extinct.

But the leaf that survives? There’s nothing else like it.

AJ’s crop was too small and too costly for regular production. So he offered it to us — for this project only. Blend after blend arrived from Estelí, each carrying a plain white factory band stamped with two words:

TOP SECRET.

Then the pandemic hit. In the rush to ship, the factory left the original Top Secret band right where it was — hidden beneath the Padilla 88 Aniversario band. If you own one of those cigars, look under the band. The secret was there all along.

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY

What we’re releasing today is one of the original 88 Aniversario trial blends. Never released. Never repeated.

The profile: Medium to bold. A unique sweetness on the finish — a caramel quality, and yes, a slight pineapple twang. It sounds odd. Wait until you taste it.

If you love the Cuban flavor profile, this cigar was made for you.

THE OFFER

We were only able to have a few hundred made. When they’re gone, they’re gone — the tobacco doesn’t exist in quantity, and we won’t blend it again.

Top Secret by Padilla

• Toro · Authentic 1930s Cuban box press

• Pelo de Oro filler · Blended at AJ Fernández, Estelí

• 5-pack: $58.99

• Strictly limited. No re-release.